Dam.



G; s. BINGKLBY. DAM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 12, 1909. RENEWED MAY 6, 1913.

1,081,199. 7 Patented Dec. 9, 1913 wwmya rrn'r OFFICE.

G-EURGE SYDNEY BINCKLEY, OF OCEANPABK, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNUR F ONE-THIRD T0 TRACY C. BECKER AND YMOND IVES BLAKESLEE, BOTH DE LOS ANGELES,

CALIFORNIA.

onnie.

DAM.

Patented Dec. 9, 1913.

Application filed July 12, 1909, Serial No. 507,246. Renewed May 6, 1913. Serial No. M5308.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it 'known that I, GEORGE SYDNEY BINCKLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oceanpark, in the county of 5 Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements 1n Dams, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to dams for stoppage, diversion and impounding of streams and bodies of water; and it has for its object to provide an improved dam which will be superior'in point of durabllity, positiveness and security in service, relative sunplicity and inexpensiveness of construction and installation, and general efiioiency.

Dams as now constructed according to standard practice are designed to 'obtain the required opposition to the pressure of the I impounded water, with consideration par ticularly to massiveness or great transverse dimensions. The holding function is .ordinarily predicated upon the disposition in the normal course of the otherwise unobstructed water of suiiicient masonry, or other material,. to withstahd the Water pressure through the gravity of the mass. In designing dams along these lines, attention has generally been paid to sectional formation,

with the object in view of providing sui'li J cient weight in the structure itself to resist the overturning tendency of the water obstructed or impounded. But it has remained for further calculation and utilization of physical principles to devise a dam with relatively increased maximum of holding efficiency and relativel decreased minimum of mass, with the resu tant relative decrease of cost of material and labor entering into to construction and installation.

' With the latter objects in View, I have devised a dam resting upon the principle of a cone or conoidfor its high efficiency of holding functionor capability of resistance to water pressure. The adaptation of the cone or conoid principle to dam construction, resulting in the production ofa dam the profile and sections of which pertain to the cone or conoid, enables the provision ,of' a so dam of increased holding capability and decreased cost, both wit-h relation to present standard practice.

The invention consists in the novel utilization of the principle of the cone or conoid in dam construction, and embodied in the provision, formation, construction and combination of parts and features all as hereinafter described, shown in the drawing and finally pointed out in claim.

- In the drawing: Figure 1 is a detail vertical sectional view, taken upon the line l-"1, Fig. 2, and looking in the direction of the appended arrows, of a dam constructed according to the invention? a portion of a body of. water being illustrated as in contact 66 with the face or profile thereof; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the dam construction shown in Fig. 1; and, Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the dam construction shown in the other figures, upon a diminished scale; a portion of 7Q the surrounding and sustaining formation being shown in connection therewith.

Corresponding parts in all the figures are designated by the same reference characters.

Referring with particularity to the draw ing; A designates the improved dam embodying the invention; the same being installed in position for service in connection with or in physical opposition to a body of Water B, which is obstructed by the dam A.

C designates a portion of the formation. of the bed and banks of a stream within and in connection with which the dam A is installed.

p The dam A, which may be of any con- R struction and formation with respect to its constitution and organization in part'or in whole, and the composition of which may be of concrete, masonry, or other material, has the general form of a truncated fragmentary cone or conoid, the crown a of which may be plane, and the base I) of which may be formed as desired and requisite for its proper installation in and connection or uniting with the formation 0; the extreme base being embedded in such formation. The crown 0; describes approximately the arc of a circle having its center down-stream or away from the obstructed water B; and the pressure receiving face or profilec of the dam has a curvature corresponding iii general to that of the surface of a cone or conoid; whereby an approximately straight line may be drawn upon and lying within the face or profile 0, from any point of the crown a, and in a .vertical plane, to the base I). The forward face a has an increasing radius from the crown a toward the base 6. The rearward face 03 of the dam may be of any predetermined and desired formation in conformity with the massing. of the constituent material of the dam between the faces and (i.

v treme depth 7 I proved dam constituting the'invention,

' face 0,

In practice it will be found that the transverse dimensions of the dam, that is, the thickness of the same betweenthe faces 0 and d, may be so relatively decreased with respect to dams of standard formation, that the formation of the rear face d will correspond in general to that of the forward the forward face 0 bein convex and the rearward face concave. T e transverse dimensions of the dam are preferably varied from the crown of the same to the base of the same, increasing in sectional area from the'former to the latter, as shown in Fig. 1, and indicated therein by the broad vertical curvature of the rearward face d.

With the improved dam installed on a formation C, such as shown in the drawing, the profile of which corresponds toa general curved depression beneath the plane of the crown a of the dam, such depression being greatest substantially centrallyof the dam, the forward face 0, or the portion thereof directly receiving the pressure of the body of water B, will vary in altitude, increasing in altitudinal dimensions toward. the vertical center of the dam; or decreasing in such dimension from the vertical center of the dam toward the sides thereof. The base lines of the forward face c'of the dam, at various altitudinal levels above the exof the body of water B, where the forward face of the dam meets with the formation C, are indicated in Fig. 2, between the lines designated by figures of altitude, the same altitudinal figures being iven in Fig. 1. I

The operation, principle of construction and service, and advantages,',of the imiwi 1 be readily understood from the foregoing description taken in connection-with the accompanying drawing and the following statement :'The dam A being of generally. conical or conoidal form with respect particularly to. the forward face or profile 0 sure of the body of thereof, the pressure of the body of water B upon the upwardly'inelined profile a, is

transmitted to the surrounding and sup-' porting formation C through the dam along such lines resultant of horizontal and vertical pressure as to add to the stability and safety of the dam in its opposition to the stress of the body of water B. Such resultant is indicated approximately by the arrow in Fig. 1. The pressure of the water upon the dam 'herefore tends to more firmly anchor and sustain the same in its bed or location in connection with the formation C; and its arched form in the horizontal plane gives support to the structure against the pressure of the impounded water, and transmits the horizontal stresses originating in such pressure to the abutments and 'the formation C. It results, therefore, that the dam will hold and stand against the preswater in spite of decrease of transverse dimensions of the dam with relation tothose of dams of other types; and that whereas such dams of other types under the same pressure and having relatively increased transverse dimensions might fail and be swept away or demol-' ished, the improved conoidal dam constituting the invention will remain stable and safe. It will be understood that the faces 0 and d referred to herein as the forward and rearward faces, designate respectively the faces which are presented up-stream and down-stream.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim and desire to secure by Letters. Patent A dam having a horizontal curvature the radius of each face of which increases downwardly through a portion of the height thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE SYDNEY BINGKLEY. Witnesses: U

A. E. GALPIN, GEO. N. When. 

